Timing: Almost allresearch studieshighlight the main work hours from 8 am to 8 pm as good times to post.

Multiple sites:Post to multiple social sites, in addition to your own blog or website.

#4 Engage in real person

Social is social. Social is not press release.

Engage your fans by conversations. Human is important here.

Lana Bandoim points out that social media engagement relies on daily interactions among users to survive. Engaging audiences in real conversations will bring better results and add more value to their social streams.

#5 Outsource Content Development as Needed

There are quite a few tasks associated with social presences (e.g., sharing news, reply to users’ comments, KPI reports)

“Studies show it takes a midsize company about 32 hours a month to capably handle a single social media platform.”, Tim Devaney and Tom Steinwrite.

“The companies that have the most effective social media communications are those that have a combination of internal and external people doing social media.” by Eve Mayer.

Decide what you want to achieve.

Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Keep some social media in-house.

Send some social media to a consultant, someone who understands social media and can apply that knowledge across many different platforms.

How many hours a month does it realistically take for your business to maintain social presences?